An Awkward Situation
by JunKing
Summary: Peter and the other fighters are on break from the tournament. Suddenly, a mysterious and intriguing woman crosses his path. What will he do?
1. iPod Tragedy

An Awkward Situation

My name is Peter. I fight in the King of Iron Fist Tournaments. I'm sure you've heard of me, and if not, it's ok. I mean it's not like I'm anything special anyways. I'm worried about my future in the tournament. I barely pulled off my last victory against Yoshimitsu, but not before taking a slash to the stomach. It wasn't a fatal cut, just a surface scratch. It sure worried King though, he swore my insides were going to fall out. Just then, he walks by. He stops in his tracks and looks at me, before sitting down on the bed next to me.

"You okay?" he asks.

I sigh silently to myself before answering back, "Yeah…I'm just thinking you know?" He nods to me with his mask. Too many battles, too many feelings, too many secrets…that no one can know about. It becomes painful, painful to hold it all in after awhile, dealing with everything all by yourself.

"How's the cut?" King asks. I lift up my shirt, revealing the bandage to him as I reply, "Yeah, it's doing fine."

Silence fills the air for but a moment before King begins to speak again. "What do you say if I take you to the movies in a little bit, after I take a shower?" I immediately cheer up and smile back. "Sure, I'd love to. You're the best step-dad anyone could ask for!" He laughs at my comment, getting up and heading towards the bathroom.

"You should probably go hang out for awhile while I shower ok?" He says to me. I get up and grab my light jacket replying, "Sure thing. I'll be back in a half hour."

I get up and begin to leave the hotel room that we share when all of a sudden, I get this devious idea. King HAS to take that mask off when he showers. Maybe this is my chance to try it on! I sneak into the bathroom a minute later, when the water was already running. King is in there with the radio playing salsa music as I see the mask sitting on the sink counter, along with King's clothes. I smile slightly as I go to reach for it. 'He'll never know…'

"Don't even think about it." I throw my hands up and turn towards the shower, looking at the curtain. "How did you know?"

"I just have skills like that." He replies. "Whatever" I say as I leave the bathroom, sticking out my tongue at the curtain playfully. Leaving the room, I make my way to the elevator, thinking of going down to find Xiaoyu and Miharu since Julia took Christie and Mina out to the nearby mall. Jaime is out on a tour with his brother, so I don't have my usual buddies around:(

As I'm walking to the elevator, I pull out my iPod and begin to listen to 24 by Jem. Suddenly, someone comes out of their room and bumps straight into me, knocking the iPod to the floor. "Jeez, why don't you watch where you're…" I look up to see a beautiful woman of what appears to be Middle Eastern descent. She has beautiful black hair, some hair covering her right eye as the rest hangs in a high ponytail. She's tall, standing eye to eye with me. I never was the type to woo the ladies, but she is pretty intimidating. "Oh…I mean, I'm so sorry miss. How clumsy of me…" That's when I look to the floor and see that my iPod is broken!

"Oh no!" I yell out as I get on my knees. "King got this for me as a graduation present…"

"Get over it. You Americans are so materialistic." The woman says to me as I pick up the broken iPod. Cocking my head over to her, I see that she is already walking down the hall towards the recreation room.

"Well ex_cuse _me." I mutter underneath my breath. "Looks like _someone_ has a stiletto stuck up her aaaa…." Don't curse! I'm not supposed to curse, I hate it when others do it, and so I can't do it either! Sigh Well I guess I'd better see if I can get Julia to fix it when she gets back. Shrugging my shoulders, I look away from the woman's direction and head to the elevator. Whoever she is, she's sure in a bad mood. Suddenly, I smile to myself. I realize that even against my will, bad women both scare and attract me.


	2. Night Terrors

Chapter 2: Night Terrors

This day was passing by so fast, or so it seemed to Peter as he looked around for a magazine to buy. King waited patiently as his step-son skimmed through several pages of one magazine, putting it down and moving on to the next.

"Excuse me, you're only allowed to read that magazine once you buy it." The store clerk yelled from behind the counter. Peter turned around with annoyance in his eyes.

"Are you serious? How am I supposed to buy it if I don't know what's in it?" he said to the clerk. Once King turned to look at the chubby clerk, he shut up immediately. Peter smiled at King in thanks. Once he turned his attention to the magazine again, Peter heard the sound of a bullet ring through the air.

On instinct, he dropped to the floor, as did King. Looking over, the two realized that it was a group of robbers. They were making their way to the counter. King quickly pulled off his mask, a jaguar roar echoing through the air along with a burst of black cloud. He rarely did this.

Peter looked over to his father. Apparently, King did not want to be seen in his fighting form, so that the robbers would just leave without hurting anybody. Once they heard the sound, the robbers turned around, wondering where it came from. King quickly shoved the mask into his sweater pocket, trying to look inconspicuous.

Seeing nothing, the robbers turned back to face the clerk. "Give us the money!" one of them yelled. Peter began to rise to his feet, slowly. King saw this and motioned towards the exit. As soon as they saw their chance, King and Peter ran outside the door towards the black car outside.

King slid across the hood of the car as he removed the keys from his pocket. Peter quickly hopped into the passenger side and yelled out as a bullet came crashing through the top of his window. King started the car and reversed as fast as he could, hitting one of the criminals in the process.

They were off in less than two seconds. "Oh God." Peter said as he looked in the right side mirror. "They're getting in their car…"

"Hold on!" King yelled as he floored the pedal. Peter almost got whip-lashed as the car roared forward. Looking over, Peter realized that King was sweating heavily. He had never seen his father in fear before. King swerved the car as he turned down another road.

Bullets hit the trunk of the black car, causing Peter to scream in shock.

"Put your seatbelt on!" King yelled as he looked in his rear view mirror. Peter fumbled with his seatbelt. Since the car was going so fast, he couldn't get it to click.

"Don't worry, everything is going to be okay, you hear me?" King said calmly. Peter gulped harshly as he nodded. Closing his eyes, Peter gasped as he heard bullets continue to pelt the back of the car. Suddenly, he heard the sound of air rushing out of the right rear tire as King yelled out.

Uncontrollably, the car swerved to the right and crashed into the ditch next to it. The car landed on its side, a tree trunk holding the car from falling completely to the ground. Peter's door flung open and he yelled as he fell to the grassy ground beneath him. King still held on to the wheel, positioning himself so that he would not fall out of the vehicle.

"You okay!" King yelled out as he looked down to Peter. Peter tried to get up, but he had such a pain in his right arm, that he couldn't rise to his feet.

"I think I broke my arm. I just hope the car doesn't fall on me!" Peter replied. That's when he heard it. The sound of another car coming to a halt could be heard above on the road. Peter looked up to see one of the criminals aiming a gun at his face from above.

He closed his eyes and prepared to feel the bullet pierce his skin, ready to have his life cut short. He heard the bullet travel through the air, and he heard it hit something. He also felt heavier, but it wasn't him. Slowly, opening his eyes, Peter realized something. King was on top of him, and his eyes were wide with shock. He had jumped in front of him and took the bullet himself.

Looking next to him, Peter found a gun. Apparently, King had it on him. Grabbing the gun, Peter reached around King's shoulder and shot two of the criminals. The others ran to the car and took off as they heard sirens coming closer.

Dropping the gun, Peter put his hands on King. He was too heavy to move, so Peter just called his name over and over again. "King! King, wake up! Please? King, no! Stay awake, don't die, please! No!"

King's eyes closed slowly as Peter began sobbing. The sirens rang through his ears. Slowly, the sound of the sirens turned into some kind of buzzing.

Peter woke up screaming. He looked around and saw King sleeping on the bed next to his. Falling out of the bed, King ran over to Peter saying, "What's wrong? What happened? C'mon Pete, talk to me!"

Peter swallowed as he wiped the sweat off of his forehead. "Just a nightmare, that's all." Suddenly, Peter hugged his step-father, that dream really had him shook up. King didn't understand why Peter was hugging him, but he hugged back, happy that Peter was showing affection.

Once he broke the hug, Peter said, "I'm going to go take a walk to clear my head. Is that okay?" He asked King.

"Sure, but are you going to be okay?" King asked. Peter nodded and replied, "Yeah, I'll be fine. Go back to sleep, there's nothing to worry about."

Reluctantly, King nodded and went back to his bed and he watched Peter walk out the door.

"That was one intense nightmare. Maybe I'll feel better if I swim a few laps." Peter said. As he walked outside to the dark morning air, he realized that he was not alone. There was a woman already in the pool.

'It's her…' he thought to himself. 'It's that woman that broke my iPod.'

Slowly, Peter approached the pool. This was going to be interesting.


	3. Confrontations

Chapter 3: Confrontations 

Through the Eyes of Peter

I walked up to the pool slowly, being nervous and afraid of the beautiful woman ahead of me. She was getting out of the pool, beginning to walk to the diving board. She didn't see me coming.

Just as she was about to dive in, I tripped over a beach chair and fell into the water. "How graceful." The woman said as I resurfaced above the clear water. I blushed uncontrollably as I put my face into the water.

'Great. Now she thinks I'm a total loser.' I thought as I looked back up. The raven-haired woman was leaving, wrapping a towel around herself as she walked towards the hotel.

'Fantastic like no other!' I thought as I saw her leaving. 'She really must think I'm retarded.'

Nervously, I decided to speak up. "Um…don't leave on my account, there's plenty of room for two."

"That's ok. The water suddenly got cold." She replied as she left, not even giving me eye contact. 'Boy that was smooth Pete, REAL good!' I yelled mentally.

"Maybe I should go apologize…wait, but for what? I didn't do ANYTHING, if she doesn't like me, then that's just HER problem." I was ranting. Well, while I'm here, I might as well swim some laps, like I said I would.

A few minutes later, I was taking a break. In the corner of my eye, I could see something red on the table nearby. "What's that?" I asked aloud as I rose up to see what it was. Upon reaching the table, I dried off my hands with the towel nearby.

After that, I picked it up. It was a red cell phone. 'I wonder if this belongs to that lady…' I thought as I flipped it open. Once the screen lit up, a picture of her came up and the words above read: Jamila's Cell.

"So her name's Jamila?" Suddenly, a rough hand tore the phone out of my hands. I looked up in shock to see 'Jamila' giving me an angry look.

"So smart you are." She said as she stomped off. Nervously, I yelled out to her, "Uh, MY NAME'S PETER! IT'S NICE TO MEET YOU!" The woman showed no response whatsoever, leaving briskly.

'She must think I'm a big dork.' I thought as I began to dry myself off. For now, I decided that I would go back up to my room and try to sleep another two hours. It was only three in the morning. Maybe tomorrow, I'll get King to beat her up for me. Nah, that'd be too harsh. I'll just go up to her myself.

Later…

It's daytime now as I wake up, the sun shining into my eyes. I look over to see that King is already awake, he is sitting on his bed watching the television. He is wearing a black tank top with denim shorts, black sandals on his feet. His angry jaguar features seem to be calm as he watches the news.

When he saw that I was awake, he grabbed the remote and took off the T.V. He sat on the edge of my bed as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. "So what do you want to do today?" he asked me.

I shook myself fully awake and replied, "Maybe we can hang out today in town, but before we go, I'd like to talk to somebody."

"Who?" King asked.

"Her name is Jamila. She's like Lady Devious or something. She's so harsh!" I started to become angry. Seeing this, King began to laugh as he said, "Well, you've never been too hot around the ladies. You always freeze up!"

I looked at King for a second before I started to laugh, he was right. I always loved the company of a woman, but whenever it came to me having to talk to them, I'd be a nervous wreck.

"I don't even know her, and it's like she hates me! Like earlier this morning, all I did was get into the pool-well…I didn't exactly 'get' into the pool, I kinda fell in." King laughed at my statement. I gave him a sarcastic stare before I continued.

"ANYways, all I did was pick up her cell phone and she ripped it away from me like it was sacred or something." I started to feel depressed, my head sinking down low. King saw this and tried to cheer me up.

"Oh come on. Let's just forget about her and go have some fun!" he said. I didn't budge. Suddenly, he pushed me down on my back and began to tickle my stomach. That was my weakness, being tickled in the gut.

"Stop it!" I yelled as I began to laugh. Pretty soon, I was laughing so hard that my insides were hurting. As tears of laughter fell from my eyes, King picked me up and threw me over his shoulder. I realized that he was starting to give me a piggy-back ride.

"I'm not too heavy for you?" I asked as I calmed down from my laughter.

"Who, you? You're a stick!" he said sarcastically. He walked over to the door and opened it. Just before he was about to put me down, my forehead came in direct collision with the door's frame.

As I fell to the ground, I closed my eyes and prepared to feel the ground. SLAM! I hit the ground hard. King knelt down and asked me if I was okay. I was quiet for a second, holding my forehead where I had been hit. Then, out of nowhere, I busted out in laughter again. King laughed along with me.

That's when I saw her. I looked past King down the hall and saw Jamila looking at me. She rolled her eyes and left the hall. 'Oh that's just lovely.' I thought. 'Now she thinks I'm a total idiot!'

Once King helped me up, I said, "Okay, now's my chance King. I'm going to go talk to her and settle this whole thing once and for all." As I spoke I held up a clenched fist.

"What is that all about, you look like you came straight out of an anime." King said as he pointed to my clenched fist and the pose I was in. If it really were an anime, there would have been a gigantic sweat drop on my head.

"I'll be right back!" I told King as I ran down the hall. I wasn't going to get nervous this time. I was going to show her that I was the mature eighteen-year-old-young adult that I was…

Oh who am I kidding?


	4. Dispute

Chapter 4: Dispute

As I walked, I found that I was becoming more and more confident. At the end of the hall, I could hear King humming the Rocky theme song. I turned to look at him as I kept walking when suddenly, I walked face first into the edge of the wall next to me. "Ow!" I yelled.

King's laughter could be heard down the hall. 'That's gonna leave a mark.' I thought as I held my nose. Looking down the hall, I could see that Jamila was sitting in the Calm Area, listening to classical music. She was flipping through a magazine and rolling her eyes at the pages.

I approached carefully, almost as if I was walking up to a ferocious lion. She looked up and as soon as she saw me, she gave me a stare that made me want to turn around. Stupidly, I did turn around. 'What am I doing?' I asked before I spun back around to face her. She was still staring at me.

I got so nervous, that I turned my back to her again. I thought to myself, 'Okay, just take a deep breath. It's only a woman. A woman who seems to hate me and who likes to wear red leather body suits and trench coats, who probably is packing heat under those clothes, who hates me, who is probably STILL staring at me, who is wondering what in the name of a mother I am doing, who hates me- Whatever. I'm going to do this.'

As soon as I spun around, I noticed that she was gone. If this were a western, a tumbleweed would have passed by in front of me accompanied by the sound of wind and dust. But this wasn't a western it was real life. "Man this is just like a story I read once on I yelled as I walked down the hall to find Jamila again.

I got to another corner, and there were no windows, so it was pretty dark. I took a deep breath and walked into the darkness. As soon as I entered the darkness, a rough hand gripped around my throat. I gasped in shock as I tried to catch my breath. Just then, I heard Destiny's Child Lose My Breath come on around the corner in the Calm Area. How ironic.

The hand pushed me back into the light, causing me to trip over my own feet and hit the ground beneath me. The person who choked me walked into the sunlight. It was Jamila.

"Why are you following me?" she said as I gulped in some air.

After catching my breath, I looked up to her sleek form and said, "Whoa easy lady!" She gave me a death look. "Um…I mean ma'am…" I corrected myself as I looked to the floor, standing up.

Jamila tossed her hair over her shoulder as she opened her trench coat. I looked inside and saw a silver gun. I froze as she pointed at me.

"Wait! I'm only eighteen1 I haven't lived a full life yet!" I cowered, closing my eyes and holding me head. I heard a shot ring out, and the sound of metal. 'Am I still…alive?' I thought as I looked up.

Jamila was holding the smoking gun in her hand. Then I heard the sound of a robot shutting down. I turned around to see a Jack robot, one of the hotel's security laying on the floor with a bullet hole in its forehead.

"I hate machines." Jamila said as she put her gun back in her belt.

"Yeah…um, how come that bullet wasn't that loud?" I asked her.

"You've never heard of a Silencer?" she said sarcastically. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms across her chest.

"Why have you been following me?" Jamila asked me.

"I can explain everyth-" Jamila interrupted.

"Explain."

"Okaaaay. I just wanted to make peace with you. I don't understand why you hate me so much, I don't even know you. This is something that I would expect from Sylvia, but then again, Tiffanie would always tell me to ignore-"

"You're ranting." She told me as she cut me off again.

"Right. Sorry." I said. I put my hands on my hips and looked at her features. She was as exquisite as a white rose, and as fair as a diamond.

"What are you looking at?" she said as I looked her up and down.

"Oh. Sorry. So anyways, are we at peace now?" I held my hand out to her, waiting for her to shake it.

"Whatever." Was all she said as she bumped past me and walked down the hall. "There. Now you can stop following me." She said, not even making eye contact.

'Your mama!' I thought in a sing-song voice. Some women just seem so impossible. I wonder who's worse, Jamila or Sylvia?


	5. Uncomfortable Silence

Chapter 5: Uncomfortable Silence

The tournament progressed and my friends and I had many challenges still ahead of us. I barely got to see Julia, Mina, Jaime, Christie, Xiaoyu, or Miharu. I hung out mainly with King. It was actually pretty fun to be here with him, we learned a lot about each other. I just feel that maybe I could tell him that…oh never mind, it's not important.

Julia was able to fix my iPod and I was so happy. Now I didn't have to tell King about it, he probably would've been quite upset. I was sleeping as I pondered these thoughts. I was half awake, half asleep as I noticed that my body was shaking. My body temperature began to rise to normal a few seconds later.

Slowly, I opened my right eye and saw King laying back down in his bed. I realized that he had given me his blanket. I wanted to wake up and give it back, but I was way too tired. Soon, I was asleep again.

Darkness. I looked around me to see nothing but a sheet of blackness. Suddenly, a light came forth and I could see somebody in it. I could tell that it was a woman. As she came closer, I realized that it was Jamila. Once she saw me, she turned the other way. 'Even in my dreams, she's mean to me.' I decided to follow her.

As we walked, I noticed that she picked up the pace of her steps. I could barely keep up with her as she broke into a sprint. She uttered no words, just the sound of her heels was heard. Suddenly, the floor gave out underneath me and I fell into the heart of the blackness.

I woke up gasping for air. I felt like I was having an asthma attack. Slowly and calmly, my breath came to its normal pace. I wiped the sweat from my brow and looked over to King's bed. He wasn't there. Where is he? I went to the bathroom after getting dressed to brush my teeth. On the mirror was a small yellow post-it.

"Meet me downstairs in a few for breakfast, King." I read aloud. Come to think of it, I was pretty hungry. How nice it is that King is going to wait for me:) I'd better get ready to go. A few minutes later, I came out of my room and headed towards the elevator. I noticed that there was an open elevator and it started to close.

"Hold the elevator please!" I yelled as I sprinted to the doors. I barely made it. Once I got inside, I bent down, putting my hands on my knees panting for air. I don't think I've ever run that fast in all my life, well maybe that time I broke King's china cabinet and he came after me.

I looked up to the person in the elevator and offered a smile, expecting to see someone like Steve or Eddy. Wrong. It was none other than Jamila. 'Yeah that's cool. Now I have a 15 flight ride with this chick.' I thought to myself. I quickly stood up and looked at the wall next to me. I was afraid to make eye contact with her.

As we waited, I noticed that the elevator was pretty slow and that there was classical music playing. 'Yuck.' I thought to myself as I looked to the control board of the elevator. There was a music button, so I decided to press it. The classical music began to fade and on came the Quinone Mix of Sean Paul's Get Busy. Overcome with the heat of the song, I began to dance (and I dance horribly), totally forgetting that Jamila was there.

Looking over, I recognized that she was there. She was giving me this horrible death stare. I immediately stopped dancing and pressed the music button again. The classical music reappeared and I, being highly embarrassed, crossed my arms over my chest and looked back at the wall. I placed my right foot up against the back of the elevator and silently prayed for this hell ride to be over.

With my wonderful luck, my shoe slipped off the wall as the elevator came to an abrupt stop, causing a fart sound to echo through the elevator. 'Oh no…'

"It wasn't me…" I managed to say, not giving Jamila eye contact. I heard her exhale in disgust as the elevator opened. Quickly, she left and made her way off to the gym area. I was so embarrassed that I stayed in the elevator, almost forgetting where I was. I snapped out of it when the elevator began to close.

"Crap!" I yelled as I threw my hand in between the doors before they closed. As the doors reopened, I looked into the cafeteria and saw King. He looked my way and smiled, motioning for me to come over. With my head down, I walked over to him.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I just made the biggest fool out of myself in front of Jamila…" I said. At that very moment, Hwoarang flung some grits off of his spoon. Of course, I was standing in it's course, and the grits slammed into my face. King closed his mouth, holding back his laughter as I stared at him, not even blinking. I took a napkin and wiped the food off of my face as I said "Let's just eat."


	6. Pictures

Chapter 6: Pictures

Jaime and Mina resisted the urge to laugh once I finished telling them my story about Jamila. I rolled my eyes and shifted on the bed that I was sitting on. "Is it really THAT funny?" I asked the two of them.

Mina didn't answer, she just looked to her blond haired boyfriend as he said, "Dude, it's freakin' HILARIOUS! I can't believe all this has happened to you in just a few days!" Mina went from a giggle to a laugh. As she laughed, she tossed her shoulder length black hair (with red streaks) to the side. She always looks so cute when she does that. Oops. If Jaime ever knew I thought that, he'd beat me to a raw pulp!

Jaime stood up and walked towards the door. "Alright, I promised Steve I'd go skate with him, so I'll see you two later!" He left and closed the door, Mina still giggling a bit. I began to get a little nervous as I looked over at her. 'I hate these co-ed situations!' I yelled mentally. Suddenly, Jaime came back into the room and pointed his finger at me.

"Hey Pete. Don't steal my girlfriend while I'm gone!" he said. Mina fell off the bed in laughter and all I could do was smile a bit. "I'm just playing around with ya! I'll see you guys later!" Jaime said as he left the room again. I exhaled when he left the room, laughing a bit as Mina calmed herself down.

"Why don't we go do something?" she said to me. I looked at her and smiled. 'That would be awesome!' I thought. Pretty girls never usually gave me attention, even though I'd overhear them saying I was handsome. They all thought that I was creepy because I liked to fight. Mina on the other hand, seemed to accept me no matter what. She seems pretty cool like that.

"Sure! What should we do?" I asked.

"Why don't we go talk to Jamila, your FAVORITE person?" Mina replied. I gave her a nervous look, almost one of desperation because she sounded so serious about it.

"I'm just pulling your leg. Man you are so easy to fool!" she said as she began to laugh again.

"Oh. Yeah, right, I knew that!" I said as I chuckled nervously. Mina stood up and took me by the hand. This made me blush as she pulled me to the door. She began to speak.

"I promised Christie that I'd go with her to the mall. You know you want to come with us!" she said as we left the room. I stopped in my tracks and thought about it. 'Hmm..following two shop-oholics around the girl shops…not my thing.'

"Uh, I actually think I'll hang around here. I don't really like the mall this time of day." I said, hoping that she would buy it. Surprisingly, she did.

"Well okay, but if you want us to come back and pick you up, just let us know!" she said as she made her way down the hall. I exhaled silently as I replied, "Okay, will do! Have fun!"

After waving goodbye, she was gone. I decided that I would go back to my room and see what King was up to. Walking back to the room, I practically tip-toed, expecting to see Jamila, or Lady Devious as my friends and I like to call her. 'Good. No sign of her!'

I opened the door to my room and looked in to see King. He was sitting on his bed going through my art book. 'Uh-oh' I thought as I got closer. I usually like to draw dart art to make myself feel better. Many kinds of pictures could be found in my book, things ranging from nude art to gothic pain to portraits of King and friends to monsters. King just happened to be going through the dark art section. He had a look of displeasure on his face.

Once he saw me, he closed the book and said, "Pete…we need to talk." I sat down on my bed and looked to the floor. King began to speak to me.

"I thought you promised me that you wouldn't draw things like this?" he said as he flipped open the book and showed me a piece of art that was particularly gory and disturbing. It showed a man holding a knife in his hands, cuts all over his body with tears falling from his face as blood fell everywhere.

I cringed a little, even my own art was too much for me sometimes. I could totally see his point and why he was upset about this, but I had too much pride and didn't want to admit that I was wrong.

"What do you care? You're not even my real father!" I yelled as I stood up and grabbed the book from him, taking off from the room. I slammed the door and immediately sank down the wall, crying tears of regret. 'I can't believe I just said that to him.' I thought as I got back up and walked away.

King was trying more than anybody I know to get to know me. He put up with all the negative things I carry around and did his best to make them positive. I always wondered why he cared so much, but then I realized that it was because he knew all about negativity. He would always tell me stories about some of the things he had to go through in his childhood, and how they still bother him. He's strong and I envy him, but my pride always gets in the way of me apologizing to him.

I started to cry harder as I turned the corner. Not looking where I was going, I slammed into someone who was turning the corner as well. My pictures flew out from my book and scattered all over the floor. I tried not to cry in front of this person, but it was no use. I felt so alone and weak, powerless even. Now I had just hurt King's feelings and I didn't know what to do.

I turned my tear-filled eyes to the person I had bumped into and I began to cry harder. It was Jamila. 'Just my luck. Now she's going to think I'm a wuss on top of being a loser!'

I bent down to pick up my pictures, embarrassed at what was showing. All the gothic pictures were showing, all of them gory and disturbing. Jamila stood for a second before she even moved. Surprisingly, she knelt down and started to help me pick them up as well. I stopped crying, this was a moment that I just couldn't ruin any more. Once I had taken the pictures from Jamila's waiting hand, I wiped my tears from my face and said, "Thanks."

Jamila said nothing as she stood up and dusted herself off. "You should be more careful." She said in a semi-concerned tone. I looked up to her and watched as she walked away. A smile crossed my face. 'So there IS a heart underneath all that red leather!'

I decided that I would go back to the room and apologize to King. I heard something loud that practically deafened me. It was an explosion, and it sounded like it had come from my room. I turned the corner and looked down the hall to see Jamila crouched in a low tiger-like position as she looked towards my room.

"Oh no…King!" I yelled as I took off running past her. As soon as I reached my door, I slammed into it. The next moment seemed to go in slow motion as I watched my life flash before my eyes. Fire burst forth from my room and I thought that was it. I was surprised when someone grabbed me and pulled me away from the flames. The fire shot out of the room and rushed out of the window across the hall, the sound of glass shattering could be heard as well as screams of shock below.

I looked over to see that Jamila was on top of me covering me with her red leather trench coat. "Didn't I tell you to be careful!" she yelled as she helped me to my feet. I blushed and followed her into the room. The window inside was smashed. I closed my eyes, tears swelling up as I said "My dad was in here…"

A moment of silence passed between us before Jamila broke it. "There's no body."

I opened my eyes and looked around. There really wasn't a body in there. Was the fire so bad that it burned King to ashes? Oh please God don't let that be the case…

A round ball spun around on the floor and a hologram appeared in front of us. It was a man who looked Middle Eastern. He wore a black trench coat to match his all-black outfit. Jamila gasped in shock.

"If you ever want to see you're father alive again, come alone to the abandoned warehouse down the block at eight o' clock…Peter Colόn." The hologram said to me.

Jamila gasped as she said, "Nexeu…"


	7. Rescue Mission

Chapter 7: Rescue Mission

I turned and began to leave Jamila standing in the room. "Where do you think YOU'RE going?" she said as she grabbed my arm.

"You heard him! He wants me to be there at eight. It's the only chance I've got to get back to King." I said harshly as I looked into her eyes. It's odd, I found that I wasn't as afraid of her as I used to be. As I turned, I heard her begin to speak again.

"Ok. So when you walk into a death-trap, don't expect me to be there to save you."

I gulped before turning back to her, "De-death trap?"

"That's correct! Death Trap." She said.

I began to reconsider my options. "Alright, alright. What do you suggest I do? And you know this guy?" I said to her, wondering what her answer would be.

"Just leave it to me. By the end of the day, I will have your father back safe and sound." Jamila said. I hopped into the air and smiled.

"Yes! But I'm coming with you." I said, not willing to take no for an answer.

Jamila stayed quiet for a second, before saying, "Ok. But you have to do what I say or else that's it. Got it?" I nodded eagerly. We began walking and I noticed something.

"Hey, you never told me how you knew this gu-" I was interrupted by Jamila's gun smashing into the back of my head. I gripped my head as I fell to the floor.

"He's my brother…" I heard Jamila say before I blacked out.

I woke up in a hotel room. "I cannot believe that witch! Did she seriously knock me out!" I yelled as I tried to get up. What a surprise, I was tied down. I laughed to myself.

"You know, normally I'd find this situation interesting, but right now, it's not cool." I said as I pouted. I sat for another minute, then I started shaking about wildly, yelling as I did so. "This! Is! UnBELIEVABLE!" I shouted. Suddenly, I noticed that the ropes on my body began to loosen.

"Ha! Jamila think she's sooo good, but apparently, she doesn't know how to tie knots!" Or maybe, she did this on purpose…Hmm, well that doesn't matter now. Right now I've gotta go save King!

With that, I finished untying myself and before I knew it, I was on the way to the warehouse. As I snuck behind the warehouse, I noticed that there were Tekken Force soldiers guarding the place. I couldn't risk getting into a fight with them, so I made sure that I wasn't seen. I jumped onto a few crates and quietly opened the vent.

Crawling inside, I looked down into the warehouse to see Jamila hiding behind a few crates. I jumped down to the ground. I landed on my butt. I covered my mouth as I yelled mentally. Jamila looked over and saw me. She motioned for me to be quiet, and then to come over to her. After recovering from my fall, I crouched low to the ground and ran over to her.

Once I reached her, she grabbed me by the ear and threw me down onto my back. "What. Are. You. DOING. Here?" She asked me angrily. I winced in pain as I looked up to her. "You never said I couldn't ow follow."

"You're crazy." She said to me. Suddenly, the crates flew down onto us. As we were getting buried, Jamila looked at me and said "Great. We've been found out."

"Maybe we can just hide under here?" I said, giggling nervously.

"Stop laughing." Jamila said. Suddenly, rough hands grabbed both of our necks and pulled us out. It was two Tekken Force soldiers. I looked into their helmeted faces and said "Easy, my skin hasn't grown that tough yet!" Jamila rolled her eyes at my comment.

"Well, well, well. Hello Jamila. I didn't expect to see YOU here." A voice said. That's when a man stepped out of the shadows. It was that man from the hologram, Nexeu. He came over to me with a syringe and I began to yell out nervously as he grabbed my arm. "Jamila!" I yelled.

Jamila forced herself away from the Tekken Force soldiers and jumped in front of me. "What are you thinking? Leave the boy out of this. It's me you want." She said to the dark man.

"On the contrary Jamila," he began as he looked into my terror filled eyes, "he's EXACTLY who I want."

'Great. I should have never come along.'


	8. The Power Within

Chapter 8: The Power Within

"Touch the boy, and I won't be held responsible for my actions." Jamila said.

"Yeah, what she said." I muttered to everyone around. The various Tekken Force soldiers raised their guns towards me. I closed my eyes as drops of sweat fell to the ground.

"Don't shoot!" cried Nexeu, "I need them both alive."

Jamila continued to stand in front of me as she said, "What do you need us for?" Nexeu smiled as he said, "Well, I just want you to go on living. I still look forward to your challenges."

Jamila clicked her tongue in disgust. Nexeu continued, "And as for you…" he said as he motioned towards me. I froze up in fear, wondering just what part exactly I had in all of this. "I want you to feel free. I wish to unlock the power within you."

"The power…within?" I said. Nexeu nodded. I laughed a bit as I said, "Well the only power you're gonna find inside me is ghetto power. I tell you, sometimes you'd think I was poor the way I conserve and reuse-"

"Not interested." Jamila and Nexeu said in unison.

"Better respect!" I yelled, knowing that I had just quoted Sean Paul. The two of them just stared at me like my name was "loser". I rolled my eyes as I began to push through the Tekken Force soldiers. To my surprise, the soldiers did not budge one bit and I nearly fell on my rear again.

"Jeez, loosen up!" I yelled. That one earned me a back hand to the face by one of the soldiers.

"Your big mouth is getting you into trouble. Again." Jamila hissed as I held my nose. I turned towards Nexeu and asked, "Anyways, where is King?"

Nexeu held up the syringe and dangled it between his index finger and thumb saying, "First you must take your medicine."

"Are you serious? I already take Adderall, Zoloft, and Resperdal, why do I have to take YOUR crap? YOU take it and unleash the holy dragon or whatever you talked about before."

"Lock them up." Nexeu said angrily. Feeling the callous hands of the soldiers, I tried to put up a fight, but it was no use whatsoever. I felt something hit me in the back of the head and soon, there was blackness. "What is up with all this knocking me out stuff? Ohh…that hurt…"

Later…

I woke up in a cell with Jamila sitting across from me. She was eying me down. I swallowed, feeling the bump on my head as I asked, "What's with the ill grill?"

She continued to stare at me. "Okay, okay I know. I messed up, I messed up bad. Got any ideas of how to get out of here?" I asked her. She rolled her eyes with a sarcastic laugh.

"Oh NOW you wish to do things my way, when you are about to die is when you obey me huh?" Jamila hissed. I looked to the floor, not knowing what to say. She was right and there was nothing I could say to my defense. Suddenly, a new hope came to mind.

"Well, God will save us! I've been in trouble before and I find that when I pray, I-"

"Shut UP about God! If God was soooo merciful, you think we'd be in this situation!" Jamila retorted. I backed down. Apparently, I was saying all the wrong things.

"Just trying to make you feel better…" I whispered, afraid to speak full volume. I heard her sigh to herself. I continued to look to the floor, when she began to speak.

"I'm sorry." She said.

I looked up in shock. Did she just apologize? "Do my ears deceive me? Did you just…why?" I asked.

She rolled her eyes again and said, "I'm sorry because there's nothing I can do to save you anymore. When you came along, you ruined all my plans and now I have none left."

"This is all my fault…" I whispered under my breath.

"That it is." She replied to my silent statement. She seems to sense things, not really relying too much on the obvious. That's when I heard the guards coming back. 'This is it', I thought.

"I'm sorry too…" I managed to say. I looked over to see Nexeu holding the syringe again.

"And now, if you are ready…" he said as he opened the cell door. Jamila moved to get up but a guard pointed his gun at her. She was weaponless, thanks to me. She looked away as Nexeu came to me.

"Is this your utopia? This madness? These experiments that you think are so precious!" she yelled as she turned hate filled eyes towards her brother. Nexeu seemed disappointed in her reaction.

"Jamila, Jamila. All I'm doing is keeping you on your toes…and giving your friend here a new life." He replied as he grabbed my arm. I struggled to get away but some of the Tekken Force held me down.

"No! Stop!" I yelled as he inserted the needle. I could then feel something cold rushing through my blood, changing my mood.

"Nexeu…whatever you just did to me, you won't get away with it…" I muttered as black lightning began to crackle around my body. I fell to the floor as the guards and Nexeu stepped out.

"Agh! This hurts!" I yelled as the pain began to intensify. Slowly, the pain began to ebb and I felt a sense of relief. I felt powerful, like I could do anything. My strength began to triple as Jamila looked on in shock. My eyes glazed over into a red haze as I looked up at her.

"You…you were mean to me…." I said as I began to walk towards her. Somehow, I knew that I was going to have fun.


	9. Unleashed

Chapter 9: Unleashed

I smiled as I walked towards Jamila. All those people who made fun of me, all those people who were mean to me…they were all going to pay…starting with Jamila.

"Peter, you don't want to do this." She said as I made a swipe towards her head. Ducking, she landed a hard fist into my stomach. I groaned in pain before laughing.

"Is that all you got?" I said. Jamila looked over to Nexeu who was now laughing.

"Bless the ages!" Nexeu cried out as he raised his hands towards the sky.

"Bless THIS!" Jamila yelled as she launched a kick through the cell bars, landing her foot in his crotch area. Yelling in pain, Nexeu stepped back along with his horde of soldiers. He then began to smile mischievously.

"Stay alive…if you can!" he said as he turned to leave, his black trench coat flowing as if it had a mind of its own. Grabbing her shoulder, I spun Jamila around to face me. I then picked her up by her neck and said, "Who's making the jokes now?"

Suddenly, I looked at Jamila and began to visualize everybody that ever made fun of me. This moment seemed like bliss, my revenge would finally begin. After I had taken care of Jamila, I would go after all the others. NOBODY would be safe from my wrath.

"Peter. You must let go of me. I wasn't the one who did this to you!" Jamila said as she gripped at my hands, trying not to choke. I laughed.

"Nexeu set me free! He did this so that I could have my revenge!" I yelled as I tightened my grip.

"N-no. He did this so that he could finally get rid of me. He's just USING you! Just like all the others did!" she said. My eyes began to tear as I yelled out in frustration.

"NOOO!"

I realized that what she was saying was the truth. How could I have been so stupid? Dropping Jamila to the floor, I began to be consumed with black lightning again. I yelled out in agony as I fell to my knees. In the corner of my eye, I could see Jamila catching her breath as I screamed in the name of God.

After a few more seconds of pain, it was over. I felt fine and my color began to return. Looking over at Jamila, I decided to break the silence.

"Well, no more Wheaties for me." I said. Surprisingly, Jamila laughed along with me. This was the first time that I had seen her laugh.

"I mean, mom always told me to drink my milk, but man! That was something else!" I said. Jamila laughed even harder. 'Hey I like this side of her!' I thought to myself as I laughed.

"DC Comics just called. They want Superman back." I said. Jamila immediately stopped laughing and began to speak.

"Okay. Don't spoil the moment, it's getting old." She said to me. I blushed and helped her get to her feet.

"So now what?" I asked, knowing that I still needed to get King. Jamila kicked the cell door as hard as she could. It swung open and she looked over at me.

"Now, we get Nexeu and get our payback." She said.

"Me like the sound o' that!" I said, causing Jamila to roll her eyes at me.

"Yeah whatever, let's go." she said as we both began to leave the room. Suddenly, we heard a helicopter. Jamila broke into a sprint and I decided to follow.

"What, are you a track star or something?" I asked as I could barely keep up with her.

"Now is NOT the time for jokes! Nexeu is going to get away if we don't hurry up!" Jamila replied.

"Okay, okay! Just wait up, Speedy Gonzalez!" I yelled out as I attempted to run faster.

"Yeah, I'm going to kill you later." Jamila replied.

"No! Okay! Have mercy!" I begged as we ran.

"Mercy. Huh! I don't know the meaning of the word." She replied. 'Well, now I know where I stand!' I thought as we reached the outside. Jamila came to a violent stop. I nearly killed myself trying to avoid running into her.

Tripping over my own feet, I landed in a heap on the floor next to her.

"Ow! That hurt!" I said as I rubbed my rear.

"There he is!" Jamila yelled as she pointed to Nexeu. He was just ahead of us and he was close to boarding the helicopter. Rising to my feet, I ran at Nexeu and charged my fist with my ki. As the black energy swirled around my fist, I yelled out in an angry manner.

As I threw my fist, Nexeu bent his side and absorbed the attack, pushing my fist back away. I felt something sharp puncture my neck. I looked to see that Nexeu had put a syringe in my neck.

"Man, you are quick…" I muttered as I collapsed to the floor. The last thing I saw was Jamila running over and then, there was only darkness.


	10. Back To Normal

Chapter 10: Back To Normal

I woke up to an odd smell. Something was on my face. It was warm and big. Once I opened my eyes, I realized that it was King's foot covered with a dirty white sock.

"Ill!" I yelled as I rolled away from him, "What's WRONG with you! That smelled like…grilled cheese sandwiches!"

King laughed at me. "Sorry. It was the only way I knew to wake you up!" he replied.

"You're GROSS!" I yelled as I rubbed my face where his foot had been. The smell had attached itself to my skin, I couldn't believe it.

"I hate when you do that!" I yelled. King laughed harder as he fell onto his bed, sometimes he reminded me of a playful child. As his laughter died down, I sat on my bed and got serious.

"What happened? I mean, how are we okay?" I asked.

King sat up and smiled at me saying, "Your friend Jamila rescued us. She carried you away and broke me out of my cell. Guess she's not so devious after all, huh?" I took in his words and thought about them for a minute.

'Jamila saved us? What happened to Nexeu?' I thought before I asked King, "Did she get Nexeu?"

King shook his head replying, "No. He got away. She said that saving you was more important."

"She said that?" I asked.

"Yep. Nexeu used a sedative to knock you out. Thank God it was only that." King replied.

I shifted on the bed and thought about something else, something that had been bothering since I said it.

"King?"

"Yes?"

"I'm really sorry about what I said before. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings or anything. It's just that…" I tried to think of the words before I said them.

"It's just that whenever people see who I really am, I get defensive, scared even. When you saw my pictures, I was afraid of what you would think of me. So I'm very sorry for saying what I said, it was stupid and selfish of me to even think that way."

King laid back on his elbows and was quiet for a few seconds. Finally, he broke the silence. "It's okay Pete. Don't worry, I don't think of you any differently now. I understand that you're going through hard times, and there's nothing wrong with that. Tell you what, why don't we end this vacation by doing some fun things, you know, as a father-son bonding."

I smiled as I replied, "Sure. I'd actually like that."

Then, I took on a more playful tone saying, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go pluck out the burned hairs from my nose ok? " King laughed at my statement as he took off his sock and threw it in my direction. I avoided it like the plague, leaping into the bathroom and landing on all fours.

After I was done in the bathroom, I came out and faced King again. "You need a shower, then we can do something afterwards." King laughed softly as he walked past me into the bathroom.

"Yes daddy." He said in a sing-song voice, trying to annoy me.

"And wash those feet!" I yelled after him.

'Hmmm…' I thought of something…exquisite. 'This is going to be priceless!'

A few minutes later, I came out of the hotel room and snuck down the hall. I had my hand behind my back, hiding something. Suddenly, I sat on the floor and pulled out my new treasure, King's jaguar mask. He took it off to shower and he didn't even realize that I had taken it.

"Now I'll FINALLY know what it's like to be King…" I said as I slowly raised the mask towards my face.

"Hmm, does your father know you are doing that?" a voice said.

I spun around just in time to see Jamila leaning against the corner of the wall. Quickly, I put King's mask into the back pocket of my black jeans as I stood to face her.

"Um…hi." I said, hoping that she would go along with this subject-change.

"No. I guess he does not know." She replied.

'Dang, she's good!' I thought. I laughed nervously as I walked a little closer to her, no longer feeling as afraid as I usually was around her.

"I just wanted to say thanks…for everything." I said.

"It was no big deal, really." She replied.

I laughed to myself a bit. "So I heard you let Nexeu go…to save me?" Jamila tossed her long black hair over her shoulder.

"I didn't let him go. He got away." She said.

"Uh huh, suuuure." I said with a smile. A thought struck me. "Hey. I bet I could make you laugh." I said in an annoying voice.

"PETE!" King's voice roared from down the hall. He came at me, wearing Armor King's mask as he wore nothing but a towel on his wet body.

"Uh! Gotta go! Thanks again Jamila!" I yelled as I ran away down the hall, King following close in tow.

"Well. It looks like things are back to normal!"


End file.
